My Happy, Healthy, Glowing Skin Routine (AND A Giveaway!!)

August 21, 2014

Howdy friends!

Are you sweaty? I’m sweaty. Pretty much all the time. I know what time of day it is based on how many showers I’ve taken. (On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I’m up to 3 showers). It’s August in Florida and it is H-O-T. I’m not complaining though. I prefer the heat to the cold.

<—Ha! I was walking into Target yesterday and heard a guy yelling (among other things) at his wife/girlfriend “Why did your bring me to the hottest place on Earth?”

Anyway…I used to dread this time of year, simply for the fact that my skin used to break out like craaaazy in the summertime. In my almost 28 years, though, I think I’ve finally figured out why, how to keep it from happening and how to take the best care of my skin possible.

Here’s EXACTLY what I do, day in and day out. This has been my routine for roughly 10 months now.

– First and foremost, I eat well. I eat as many variety of vegetables as I can everyday–with a hefty amount of greens being the majority of these vegetables. As a whole, I eat mostly vegetables, protein, and yummy fat. I occasionally have some wine, banana ice-cream, french fries or other random treat, but, the worse I eat, the worse my skin reacts. Almost immediately after a cheat meal, I get a “friend” on my chin.

–I never, never, never, never, never, NEVER let sweat dry on my face. As I said in my old skin care post, my past esthetician advised me on this issue and she was absolutely correct. I keep Burts Bees Face Towelettes in my car and gym bag and wipe my face with them a couple of times a day. I feel refreshed and my pores stay clean and un-clogged. Win-win!

–I keep my face products inexpensive, as natural as possible, and very simple: (again, I’m not affiliated with any of these, it’s just what I’ve found to work best for me)

Step 2: Run a wash cloth under warm water, wring it out, and place it over my face. I press the warm wash cloth into my skin to steam my face. I let this warm cloth sit on my face for about 2-3 minutes.

Step 3: While my pores are open from the warm wash cloth, I pour some Thayers Rose Petal Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera ($10.51 on Amazon) on a cotton round and swipe away any remaining makeup, sweat, or whatever else might be lingering on my skin.

Step 4: If I have a breakout, I use Neem Oil ($10 on Amazon) and slather it all over my face (smells funny, but works like a charm–no more breakouts!). If I’m not breaking out, I rub Boots Organic Face Oil all over my face. (I can’t find where Target sells this oil online, but in store, I buy it for $8.99 per bottle. All of the sites I’ve found it on charge roughly the same for the oil, yet charge about $5-$6 for shipping). It makes your skin oh-so-soft and properly hydrated without being too oily. I HIGHLY recommend it.

– I stay as natural as possible when using all the other stuff my skin may absorb. I work pretty hard not to put extra toxins in my body, so the use of main-stream body lotion, deodorant, shampoo, etc. have had to be replaced with more natural products. I have absolutely fallen in love with the Coco Lavish products from Jodi Anderson’s Etsy shop. A while back, Jodi sent me sample sizes of her deodorant, salt scrub, chapstick, and SPF 20ish sun cream to try. Seriously people, this stuff is extremely effective AND (best part!) affordable!!

I love it all–especially love the deodorant, body scrub, and chapstick.

The deodorant only has 9 ingredients, all of them being things that you can find in nature. I LOVE not being worried that aluminum and other ingredients that I can’t pronounce are seeping into my lymph nodes and blood stream all day.

The salt scrub is just abrasive enough to slough off dead skin but still gentle, moisturizing (thanks to a couple of natural oils) and smells good enough for it to be totally luxurious.

(The only reason I did not mention too much about the sun cream is that, although I did use it, I have not been in the sun for a long enough period of time to be sure that it warded off sunburn. I’ll keep you posted though! :))

I REALLY love what a huge fan of essential oils Jodi is– hence why everything she makes smells SO good! (She shares a love for Wild Orange Essential Oil along with me! Some of the therapeutic benefits of this incredible oil include: anti-bacterial, anti-depressant, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiseptic.)

Jodi was sweet enough to offer one lucky Funky Fork reader a $20 credit to her Coco Lavish Etsy shop (which affords you a handful of things!) and 5mL of Wild Orange Essential Oil! Follow the directions below to enter! I will pick a winner on Monday!a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’m a thirty-something living on the beach in Northeastern Florida with my husband, Mark, and our son, Hudson. I am an American College of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer and my current job as well as my absolute favorite way of getting fit and sweaty is through group circuit training at GO HQ. I am also specialized in nutrition through the Precision Nutrition program.